Women And Tech Combine To Revive Fashion Industry In NYC

Forbes Woman
I write about the success factors of women entrepreneurs.

Technology is the new black

When I think of fashion, I think of the clothes on my back and how stylishly I’ve put them together. I don’t think technology. Yet, fashion retailers are increasingly using technology to ensure that you (and I) look FABulous.

At first, fashion retailers were slow to grasp how technology could improve sales, and decrease returns and markdowns. That’s changing big time as fashion retailers make tech one of the basics in their wardrobe.

Last week, I attended New York Fashion Tech Demo Day, which is a public/private partnership among the Partnership Fund for New York City,Springboard Enterprises, and 10 major fashion retailers. NY Fashion Tech Lab is an accelerator program that aims to dramatically increase the number of fashion industry jobs in New York City -- currently 175,000 or 6% of all jobs in the city. The U.S. apparel market is the largest in the world, about 28% of the global total, which equates to $331 billion, according to Statista. NYC is arguably the fashion capital of the United States.

Supporting tech startups in NYC’s core industries

Because NYC has the highest concentration of large corporate technology users, we should be cultivating startups that meet their needs within the city’s core industries, said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City. It is in the best interests of established companies that they work with start-ups that create innovative technologies to meet their needs. And it’s in the best interest of start-ups to find out what the big guys need.

For NY Fashion Tech Lab, eight start-up and growth fashion-tech companies were selected from 120 applicants. Those chosen by the 10 fashion-retailer members have the promise of solving a major pain-point for the retailer, said Amy Millman, president of Springboard. Five of the eight firms have women founders.

Focus on the needs of fashion retailers

Most incubator and accelerator programs provide feedback from the investor perspective, said Larry Nipon, chief revenue officer of TRENDALYTICS, which provides insights on brand positioning, product mix, regional demand and seasonality by identifying consumer engagement patterns in social and search data ensuring that shoppers have the styles, sizes and colors they want and not what they don’t want. This program provided feedback from the fashion retailer perspective, the people who ultimately will buy our product. The feedback was invaluable, he continued.

It was also about the camaraderie. Only another entrepreneur understands the pressures of entrepreneurship. It’s about being part of a community of entrepreneurs within your industry that support each other, said Karen Moon, CEO and co-founder of TRENDALYTICS. You can call the participants when issues arise to problem-solve.

The program provided unprecedented access to purchase decision-makers from the leaders in the industry, said Amanda Curtis, CEO, Nineteenth Amendment, an e-marketplace and scalable production and management system for emerging brands. Fashionistas who crave individuality can discover, critique and buy exclusive designs. Lots of folks provide training about business planning and projecting financials, and office space. This was very different. Curtis will be moving her company to NYC because, when it comes to fashion, the City is the place to be.

Meeting with the large fashion retailers wasn’t about selling to them, it was about listening, said Erica Kammann, President and Co-Founder of Suddenlee, which provides next day delivery at an affordable cost. “They told us exactly how to pitch them." Ultimately we built relationships that will be cultivated long after the program has ended, said Yaniv Nissim, CEO and Co-Founder of Stylit. Whether you are a fashionista or “shopping impaired,” Stylit customizes head-to-toe outfit recommendations to your style preferences, budget, body type and size.

Alexis Maybank, Gilt Group, a pioneer in utilizing data in its business, and Richard Harris of Intent Media, a predictive analytics company, were teamed with Jade Huang, StyleSage, a real-time strategic analytics web platform that answers the questions: What designs will consumers love? How should they be prices? How much should be produced and stock in stores?

Even though this was a first-time program in the fashion-tech space, both the Partnership and Springboard have done this separately in other industries. Being part of such a prestigious program gave Huang, the youngest company in the program and the only one who hadn’t yet raised money, the credibility she needed to raise money.

Supporting women with quality ideas, who have the ability to execute and have been primed for success will strengthen a key segment of the City’s economy to the benefit of us all, by creating jobs and innovative products and services.